A Crying Soul
by Rai-San Fenix
Summary: This story is set five years after the 'Griffs War' which took in 0087 UC between the Federation special task force, TITANZ, and the antifederation union, AEUG. While the earth gravity was becoming the battle field of another war, the ghost of
1. Chapter 1

GUNDAM:A Crying Soul

On the Neo-Zeon cruiser MADAGASCAR II, Lieutenant Commander Anavel

Kircheiss flexed the tip of his toes and floated up to the bridge.

Musai-class ships were so quite that when he landed, one could hear

only the Velcro on the soles of his boots mesh with that of the floor.

But Marindorf, a Lieutenant Junior Grade, had sharp ears. Turning, he

said, "We'll reach the Grenada in fifteen minutes, sir." Anavel grunted

in acknowledgment and stared out the bridge window at the panorama that

unfolded before them. It was something he always enjoyed. There, down

to the left, was Luna, an illuminated crescent floating in space. And

next to it was the reddish rock of the Gate of Zeon, reflecting like a

rusty little hand sickle.

The Gate of Zeon is the name for the remaining of Abowaku at the

Lagrange point two. The Abowaku was the last battle field of the One

Year War and during the final battle, half of its volume was destroyed

by Federation Forces. Since then it was deserted, and now it reminded

people the destruction of the war.

"Laser scope !"At Anavel's command, the monitor on the port side of the

bridge displayed an image from the laser system; it showed the Luna and

the Gate of Zeon, floating in space. But the image was not a true

depiction of reality. The system detected what information it could;

the computer analyzed it and then, using inference and extrapolation

techniques, finally output a detailed computer graphics image. If the

computer data base did not yet contain specific information on a new

design ship or mobile suit, however, the system could only display a

silhouette of that object. There were no federation ships in this area.

Anavel called out. "How far are we from Grenada ?"

In response, an enlisted man stationed in front of the monitor typed in

a command on a keyboard. Something about the torn seam on the man's

left shoulder distracted him, but the data he wanted nonetheless soon

appeared on the lower right corner of the display, and he pored over it

through his antiglare face field which all crew members wore on combat

duty.

"Tell me Marindorf, how come we have no data about the Ma Kube Colliery

when Feds have it for nearly twelve years ? It was the Zeon's mining

base under Commander Ma Kube's command during the One Year War, wasn't

it ? Then we should have the data about his secret plan long ago, not

twelve years later." Anavel asked Marindorf. "Yes, that's right, Lt.

Commander Kircheiss. But the Zeon High Command Intelligence thought the

nuclear bombs at the Ma Kube base were all destroyed at the battle with

Feds mobile suit, RX-78-3. The information was handed to us only two

months ago by our agent at the Grenada city that the computer files of

the Ma Kube base computer were downloaded to the RX-78-3 before the

destruction of the base and again transferred to the Grenada Military

Research Centre computer when Feds downloaded the RX-78-3's AI computer

files for future mobile suit development. Fortunately, they haven't

discovered it and the person who discovered was pre-Zeon scientist and

that's how we come to know about it, sir," came the response.

Marindorf, a Lt. J.G., was ten years Anavel's senior. His reply was

overly formal; rank was important, but last names were rarely used

anymore. "According to the agents report Grenada's defense is at very

low and if our presence is discovered we won't have any problem, sir."

Anavel again watched the image as he kept asking. "How many mobile

suits are there ?" "According to the report, there are currently two

platoons of RMS-179 GM II, and three MSZ-006 Zeta GUNDAM and also

dozens of mega beam cannons, sir." Anavel smiled a bit at his comment.

"So, Feds thought Grenada is not that important to them, huh ?"

Koh Ingram declined his seat and closed his eyes. After the take-off

pressure vanished, he felt his body weight became a lot lighter and the

experience that so called the weightlessness affect which often caused

a very unpleasant feeling to those earth-bounded people. However, he

felt as if he came home after a long journey. The feeling was for his

delight, after almost two years of staying at the earth still pleasant.

It reminded him of his time at Side 7 and he smiled at that thought.

Koh Ingram was born at Side 7, Green Noah 1, and grew up there before

joined the Federation Forces. After the enlistment he was sent to Earth

and spent six month for training at the military academy in New Hong

Kong. Upon the graduation, he assigned to the Torrington base near the

ruins of Sydney in Australia. The Torrington base was Federation

Force's prototype mobile suit test base and he spent next eighteen

months as the one of test pilots. He was still wondering why he's been

chosen for test-flight of the Federation's new mobile suit. He wasn't

particulary stood out among the test pilots at the base, though he

wasn't bad either. He decided he would get all the answers when he

arrived Griffs and quickly fallen into the sleep.

Mobile Suits, MS, were giant humanoid, heavy armour machines, a new

type of weapon designed for close-quarter combat in outer space and

introduced for the first time in the One Year War by Zeon National

Armed Forces. Externally they resembled a robot, but they were operated

by human pilots in a cockpit in the core module.

The first mobile suit was completed in 0070 UC by Zeon researchers. It

was a 10 meter tall humanoid mecha prototype by combining practices

derived from space pod construction and AMBAC (Action Mass Balance Auto

Control) technology. AMBAC allowed zero-gravity maneuvering through the

moving of limbs and shifting of the centre of mass. This proved

beneficial in the long run, as the use of AMBAC allowed the

construction of mecha with fewer maneuvering thrusters, thus saving on

weight.

The first prototype was ridden with problems. The autobalancing system

was still not perfect, resulting in frequent toppling while walking.

There was also no power source that could generate enough power while

remaining light enough, to provide the kind of performance a military

vehicle would need. But as research continued, in March of 0070 UC

Zeon technicians discovered how to jam radar using Minovski Particles:

this is instantly dubbed the 'Minovski Effect.' In May, the first

working prototype of a new type of heavy ordinance, the 'mega-particle

gun' was completed.


	2. Chapter 2

The Minovski Particle was first proposed by Dr Minovski. Dr Y. Torenov

Minovski, a noted physics, published a series of papers on a new school

of experimental physics, instantly dubbed 'Minovski Physics'. Minovski

physics was based upon the theoretical existence of the Minovski

Particle, which has an inertial mass of almost 0, carries either a

positive or negative charge, and absorbs most forms of radiation.

The existence of this particle was substantiated in October of 0069 UC

and this discovery changed the nature of warfare forever. The

harnessing of the Minovski particle led to the development of

near-perfect radar jamming, the Mega-Particle Gun, and smaller, lightly

shielded fusion reactor.

In 0071 UC, the Zeon Military R&D Command successfully constructed a

micro fusion reactor using the principles of Minovski Physics. Instead

of conventional, heavy metal shielding, this reactor used a layer of

Minovski Particles as shielding, resulting in a small, light weight

reactor capable of producing large amount of power.

"All passengers, please return your seat and fasten your seat belt.

We'll arrive at Griffs in ten minutes. Please remain at your seat until

further announcement and ready your passport. Thank you for using the

Global Shuttle and we'll look forward to serve you again. Our crew wish

the pleasant staying at Griffs." He woke up at the sound of

announcement. After returned his seat he turned on the outside viewer

switch. The small flat screen attached to the seat in front of him

lightened up and displayed the dorsal view of the shuttle as it

approached Griffs docking bay. The cylindrical colony looked as bright

as a full moon and as the shuttle was getting close it glared bright

white in the sun. It was hard to keep a cool head when closing in on an

object three kilometers in diameter.

On October 4, 1957 AD, then the USSR shocked the world by putting the

first man-made object into earth orbit, a small sphere called

'Sputnik'. The dawning of the space age was heralded by people all over

the world receiving Sputnik's radio beacon on their radios and

televisions. Despite the fact that the United States immediately began

to scramble to catch up, again it was the Russian, Yuri Gagarin who was

the first man in space on April 12, 1961 AD.

These events sparked the imaginations of scientists and science-fiction

authors the world over. What was once only a dream had now entered the

realm of the possible. In 1969 AD, Princeton university professor, J.K.

O'Neill drafted a proposal for space colonization. Professor O'Neill's

proposed orbital colonies were man-made cylinders thirty-two kilometers

long and three to six kilometers in diameter that would have living

space for approximately thirty-two million people. This dream seemed

even more possible once an American, Neil Armstrong, set foot on the

surface of the moon. This event was followed by rapid developments in

science, but Professor O'Neill's dream remained that until the next

century.

Towards the end of the twentieth century, Earth had plunged into

crisis. Horrendous overpopulation had wreaked havoc on a civilization

dependent on the burning of fossil fuels. It had brought out the worst

evils of capitalism, aggravating a struggle for finite resources and

exacerbating the greenhouse effect. And when an attempt was made to

switch to giant orbiting station of photovoltaic cells, the microwave

transmission of power to Earth nearly destroyed the ozone layer, making

radiation damage a serious danger. There was only one way to avoid

destruction of the planet's entire ecosystem, and that was through

collective action on the part of mankind to manage its own population

growth.

However, for most people's dismay, at the beginning of the twenty-first

century two biggest world powers initiated the World War III. The EC

(European Community) declared the war against the United States and

Japan alliance. The battle ground was Pacific region including southern

Asia and Australia. Although the war last only nine days, the

destruction it caused was enormous. The whole Korean peninsula and the

half of the Japan island were totally destroyed and America lost its

Pacific coast to the EC's nuclear attack. Also two third of Australian

population were killed by EC's the H-bomb. The EC also suffered heavy

damages. Whole England population was evacuated due to its heavy

radiation after America's nuclear counterattack and Paris, Rome and

other major cities in Europe were destroyed by the US defence

satellites. Nearly two billion people died and people was shocked by

what they had done - killing twenty percent of world population in just

nine days.

After the war, people from all over the world demanded the peace and

each government should combined into one united world government to

play a governmental and peace-keeping role on a global scale and

suggest the solution for world population problem and safeguard their

future. Also it was proved in the world war, the United Nations were

incapable of playing role of a world-wide governing body. After nearly

seventeen years of delay, struggle and hesitation, finally in 2045 AD

the world unified government, Earth Federation Government, was formed

and to celebrate this historical event, 2045 AD became Year 0001 of the

first UC (Universal Century).

With the planet's very future at stake, a bold massive program to

colonize space was proposed by Federation Government and quickly

adopted. In what seemed like a science fiction dream at the time,

groups of floating colonies called Sides were constructed at the

Lagrange points, specific locations around Earth and moon where the

gravitational field of the sun, Earth, and moon all neutralised each

other. In the early days the individual colonies were giant floating

long cylinders with three big mirrors to direct light to the colony,

but later they doubled in size. Emigration was made compulsory and was

enforced by the state mandate on a global basis, with no cultural or

regional exceptions permitted. Later Federal Government organised the

special task forces to reinforced in those area where people apposed to

leave Earth.

The first group of forty colonies, Side 1, was constructed at the Fifth

Lagrange point. It was followed in 0024 UC by the construction of

another group called Side 4 and on the same year a permanent lunar

city, Von Braun was completed. Sides 2 and 6 were built at the Fourth

Lagrange point. Side 5 was built at the First Lagrange point and then

Side 3 was built at the Second Lagrange point in an area colloquially

known as "the back of the moon."


	3. Chapter 3

In 0045 UC, an asteroid, Juno, was moved into lunar orbit to ease

population pressure and provide raw materials for construction after

ten years of effort to bring it from the asteroid belt between Mars and

Earth, and immigration to Side 1 and 2 had been completed. When

construction on Side 3 began, the colonists on the first two Sides had

already begun to think of themselves as somehow different from Earth.

Construction of the remaining Sides thereafter proceeded at an

increasingly fast pace. On 0067 UC by the time emigration to Side 6 has

concluded and construction had begun on Side 7, a nearly centurylong

colonization and emigration project had almost ended, resulting nearly

eighty percent of mankind lived in space.

After the shuttle docked and the pressure had been neutralised, two

Griffs immigration officers entered the shuttle. They then looked

around the passengers and approached Koh Ingram. "Are you the Ensign

Koh Ingram from Earth ?" A taller officer with glass asked him as he

compared Koh's face with his PAD screen. "Yes, that's right." A fat

officer in his thirties spoke this time. "Please come with us. General

Revil asked Griffs administration to send you directly to the Murasame

Institute. He's waiting for you at there." Then three of them got off

the shuttle and walked to the quarantine area. To his surprise, no one

stopped them to see Koh's passport. Soon he was riding to the institute

on a luxurious ele-limousine. The Murasame Institute was originally

founded during the One Year War along with the Flanagan Agency at Side

6 by the Krishia Zavi.

Side 6, or Lia, as it was also known, was governed by the Rank

administration and generally regarded as neutral territory. But the

truth was far more complex. During the One Year War, if the Zeon

Archduchy prevailed in the war it would need a safe base from which to

control the defeated Federation territory. Gren, Krishia, and other

Zavi leaders had therefore deliberately spared Side 6 from the

destruction and co-opted the supposedly autonomous Rank administration.

Side 6 was in reality a Zeon puppet.

After the war ended with Zeon's defeat, the Murasame Institute was

forced move to Griffs by Federal Forces and officially owned by Side 7

ministry of colony administration but secretly it kept the connection

with Zeon forces and supplied the artificial New Types while the

Flanagan Agency which remained at Side 6 concentrated on the

development of the New Type specific mobile suits and related weaponry

system. However, when the Federation Force chose Griffs as the base of

its 13th Autonomous Corp, they had to cut their connection with Zeon

and cooperated to survive. Since then two New Type research institutes

had been competing each other and were the main reason behind the

emergence of New Type mobile suits and weaponry system used during the

Griffs War.

"Dgoss Gear, this is Lt. Commander McVery Kusko. I'm losing the control

of the Bit. They're not responding to my command and firing at random.

Repeat, I'm losing the control of the Bit. I'm now attempting the

manual override."

About two hundreds kilometers from the Texas colony, in an area known

as the Texas Zone, a huge warship was floating in the space. The

exterior shape was distinctive Neo-Zeon design. Indeed, it was a DGOSS

GEAR which was one of the powerful warships in Neo-Zeon fleet and one

of few survived in the last war. Not far from the ship, dozens of

bright lights were fluttering around a strange looking mobile suit. It

had the humanoid shape but its armours were extremely big, resulting

the mobile suit looked very bulky and had dozens of vernier rockets

throughout the body. Also a huge stabilizer at the back, made it looked

more like a mobile armour than a mobile suit. It was desperately

shooting the beam rifle at those small objects which were fluttering

around and firing its maga-particle cannons to various directions.

However, as if they were reading the pilot's mind, they avoided the

beam easily.

The Bit, also known as the funnel was a six meter diameter machine

composed primarily of a small nuclear fusion engine and a mega-particle

cannon and controlled by the psychom. It was first used in the One Year

War by Zeon's New Type mobile armour and although it proved its

potential use beyond the expectation, it was introduced too late to

make any significant impact on the outcome of the war. After the war,

the Bit was further researched and refined mainly at the Murasame

Institute.

Suddenly all Bits stopped and started to drift around the mobile suit

which also ceased the motion. The warship then start to approach them.

"Lt. Commander Kusko, maintain your position. We're sending two

Marasais to retrieve your mobile suit and Bits." When the ship closed

at few hundreds meters from them, two RMS-108 MARASAI were launched

from the lower hanger deck in the left side of ship and one of them

grabbed the mobile suit and pushed into the ship while the other one

tried to collect Bits.

The Texas Zone was an area in space around the Lagrange point where the

Battle of Ruum had taken place. It got its name from the sole surviving

Side 5 colony in the area, Texas, which had once been used exclusively

for sightseeing and large-scale cattle ranching. An old-style colony

only three kilometers in diameter and thirty-two in length, Texas had

been built to simulate the mountains and plains of the western regions

of the North American continent and was even equipped with cowboys,

herds of cows, and covered wagons; people had come from throughout the

space colonies to Texas to enjoy camping, horseback riding, and the

experience of rafting down a replica of the Rio Grande. Although the

colony had been attacked several times during the Battle of Ruum, it

had not been completely destroyed, but the motors that drove the

mirrors used to radiate sunlight into the colony had been wrecked,

leaving them stuck perpetually in a sunset mode. The colony still had

air, but the humidity had fallen so law that eight months after the

Battle of Ruum, Texas had become a near desert. The living stock had

all been seized by Zeon forces, and the former residents had escaped to

Federation territory or surrendered to Zeon. The colony was now totally

deserted.

The space around the colony was filled with remnants of other Side 5

colonies destroyed in the war, creating a shoal region even more

dangerous than around Luna II, and when a heavy concentration of

Minovski particle was used, the combination made the region almost

impenetrable. Since the One Year War, both Zeon and Federation forces

feared entering the Texas Zone because enemy ships were too hard to

spot and ambushes were too easy.

Upon arrival, Koh went through a very tight security check. First he

submitted his passport and all his files thoroughly checked and then

his DNA was scanned and verified. After fifteen minutes of the

drudgery, finally he was led to a room which didn't have any sign

outside. While walking through the corridor he saw many of glass walled

rooms in which various machineries were installed and in one room

couple of youngsters were going through the some kind of test. When he

entered the room, he found a general at his sixties sat on the

comfortable looking sofa and was smoking his trademark cigar.

The smoking was died in early days of space colonization as the air

they had in the colony was very precious thing. All fossil fuel burning

vehicles were banned in favour of the electric cars and the smoking

also passed out eventually. However, few of old generations still

insisted on old habits and most of them were in the powerful position

to allow themselves to enjoy those privilege. A General Revil was after

all the hero of Axis War and probably one of the two most well known

public figure of Federation Force sinec the One Year War and he

certainly had that privilege.

"Welcome to Griffs, Ensign Ingram." The general smiled broadly and

offered his hand. "Please, sit down. Make yourself comfortable." The

general, then offered a tea which was another privilege he enjoyed.

After few minutes of casual greeting, his face became serious.

"I'm sure now you're wondering what these all VIP treatment are all

about. Don't worry I'll get that point shortly. But first, your father

Lt. Commander Kamiu Ingram was the pilot of the Z-SR, the recognition

number MSZ-007SR during the Griffs War and your mother Lt. Far Yurie

was the pilot of the Rick-Dias, the recognition number RMS-009 at that

same war. Isn't it correct ?" "Yes, sir. That's correct, sir." Koh

answered while wondering why suddenly the general was asking about his

parents.

"According to this document, your father was the ace pilot during that

war. In fact, he shot down more enemy mobile suit than any other pilot.

Your mother's score is also very impressive. Hold a moment, son. I'll

get to the point, now. I don't think you know this but from this

Murasame Institute evaluation report, your father scored the highest

New Type ability ever recorded in Federation Force. His score was even

higher than Commander Amuro Ray's. Also your mother's score was in top

twenty. Therefore, from this New Type couple we expected a baby with

high New Type potential and indeed it was you, son." Koh was stunned by

the general's revelation about his parents.


	4. Chapter 4

Brain waves are essentially electrical signals, and Dr Flanagan had

developed a computer-based system that converted them into pulse

signals for amplification. But from his research on people with

paranormal abilities, he knew that human consciousness was composed of

far more than electricity and that it also included other waveforms

such as the psycho wave. With new biocomputer technology, he therefore

has succeeded in creating a device called a psychocommunicator, or

psychom, which could interface with a brainwave amplification

apparatus. As it turned out, the total system failed to function

properly with human operators of average paranormal abilities and

worked only with those who possessed unique, expanded powers of insight

or intuition.

Early experiments had problematic for Dr Flanagan and his assistants.

They demonstrated the existence of mysterious different 'types' of

humans and the wide range of abilities they possessed. But it proved

infinitely more difficult than first anticipated to categorise those

abilities. Clearly, the psychom interface worked best with subjects who

had enhanced powers of intuition - with the so called New Types - but

that only led to the question of how to define, or for that matter how

to even find, New Types. There was no guarantee of finding them in any

great number among the truly gifted members of society - the geniuses

in the arts and sciences. Nor were average persons with superior

intuition always New Types. They could even exist among extremely

ordinary, traditional people with a rigid sense of self and relatively

little heightened awareness.

What, they then began to wonder, was a true New Type ? Unable to come

up with a single concrete definition, they were forced to concluded

merely that New Type subjects were characterized mainly by a power of

insight greater than anything ever before recorded in research on human

consciousness. New Types were different from ordinary geniuses or the

highly gifted and different from people with already identified

extrasensory powers, such as telepathy, prescience, psychic

photography, teleportation, and even channeling. New Types were also

capable of simultaneously addressing multiple problems and of

projecting their thoughts externally.

Dr Flanagan's greatest scientific achievement came when he realised

that the New Type concept symbolised not just a unique individual

ability but a positive transformation that all humankind could

potentially achieve. It was an idea with universal appeal, but in Zeon

it especially caught the attention of Krishia Zavi, who realised at

once that the psychom interface also could be utilized for military

ends, and immediately banned any further public mention of the New Type

concept. She also founded two New Type research institutes at Side 6,

Lia. However, human nature being what it was people tiring of the war

nonetheless began to whisper in wishful terms about a New Type

transformation of all humankind. In reality, of course, nothing had

changed at all.

Koh was very confused why the general suddenly told him about all of

these. The general watched him for a long moment before continued to

speak. "I know it'll be a bit of shock to you, son. But we need you for

our new mobile suit. None of our existing New Type pilots succeeded to

interface with it. Then someone mentioned your father and that's why

you're transferred to Griffs. We believe you have enough New Type

ability to interface with this prototype."

However, he wasn't listening to the general's speech. He was deep in

thought of his father who went insane at the end of last war due to the

overdrive of the psychom of his mobile suit. After released from the

hospital, his mother brought his father to Earth and stayed there ever

since. He still saddened by the fact that he no longer could ask his

father for forgiveness until the day he recovered.

He used to hate his father when he was young because at that time he

was in belief of Contolism movement and he was opposed to his father's

decision to join the Federation Force even though he fought along with

AEUG to overthrow TITANZ. Today, still in favour of spacenoid movement,

he now believed he could understand why his father joined the

Federation Forces and not the Zeon, and how hard it must had been when

he shot down the enemy mobile suit.

At about the time when the construction of Side 3 began, the seed of a

new idea were planted. The philosophy called 'Eleism' became popular

among spacenoids, as the colonists are called. The tenets of this

philosophy were that humans should move into space, so as to allow the

Earth, the cradle of life, to recover and return to a pristine state.

This idea was, of course, not very popular with Earthnoids, who saw

spacenoids as being inferior to Earthnoids, and the colonies as a

source for resources not available on Earth anymore. Most of food eaten

by Earthnoids, as well as most raw materials used for manufacturing,

were produced in space and shipped to Earth at almost no cost. However,

it was a reasonable assumption that any goods produced on Earth and

shipped up to the colonies would be almost prohibitively expensive.

Furthermore, the Earth perceived the colonies as being government

property and thus under complete Federal jurisdiction. Nonetheless, the

colonists were none too pleased at being treated as second class

citizens of the Federation. Centuries before, similar policies of

colonialism that great Britain enforced on the American colonies

resulted in a revolution and the birth of a new nation.

In 0045 UC, a man named Zeon Zum Daikun combined a pro-Side political

agenda with Eleism, and began the Contolism movement. Zeon proposed

that the colonies were not merely a replacement for the Earth, but the

future of mankind. Man had developed as far as possible on Earth and

now had to move into space to further evolve.

This movement gathered support among the colonists, who represent a

sizable majority of human population. By 0050 UC, nine billion out of a

total population of eleven billion lived in space. Daikun gained enough

support for his philosophy that in 0052 UC, he moved to the colony of

Sweetwater at Side 3 and gathered his supporters there. By 0058 UC, he

had drafted a plan to make Side 3 independent of the Earth.

In 0063 UC, Zeon Zum Daikun declared Side 3 to be the independent Zeon

Republic. He backed up this declaration with the formation of the

People's Defense Guard, the Side 3 militia. In response to this

declaration, the Earth Federation imposed economic sanctions on Side 3.

These sanctions strengthened later in 0067 UC.


	5. Chapter 5

In October of 0069 UC, Zeon Zum Daikun died under mysterious

circumstances. His supporters believed he was assassinated, but had no

solid evidence. Zeon's advisor, Degin sod Zavi, assumed the position of

Premier of the Republic and a reorganization of the Zeon Republic took

place. First, the People's Defense Guard was upgraded to become the

Zeon National Armed Forces, a tightly disciplined army. Soon after

this, Zavi proclaimed Side 3 to be the Zeon Archduchy, with himself the

first ruling Duke and his progeny his heirs. This is followed by the

assassination of Sasuro Zavi by unknown forces, and a purge against

Zeon Daikun's supporters by the government. Soon Side 3 was rapidly

undergoing the conversion from a republic to a facist state.

After an hour of meeting with the general, Koh was led to the another

room. The sign on the outside said 'Chief of Operation'. When he

entered, there already was a young woman at the room. The room was

rather small with one large desk and a glass wall which showed the

other side but at the moment the other side was too dark to be seen.

The woman was quite attractive and young. In fact she didn't look much

older than him. She had long dark hair and youthful face but

unfortunately her body was hidden under the lab coat. He could read her

name on th ID card on her chest, Dr Nina Purpleton and the chief of

operation.

"Nice to meet you, ensign Ingram. I'm Nina Purpleton, the head of this

project but please call me Nina." She offered her hand while speaking.

"I'm sure you have many questions regarding this whole project. Please

seat down, I'll explain all." Her voice was very feminine and reminded

him a girlfriend in his youth. "Please Doctor, call me Koh. I'm not

used to these rankings." She smiled at his request.

"All right then, Koh. Now where was I ? Oh, yes. This project,

codenamed 'Gundam Sentinel' was officially launched three years ago by

Federation Forces 13th Autonomous Corps chief commander Captain Bright

Noa but in truth, it has been researched long before his request. The

aim of this project is to come up with the new power generator and

built the new GUNDAM based on that system. The conventional mobile

suits use the ultracompact magnetic confinement fusion engine which was

put to the practical use after the discovery of Minovski particle.

However, we're reaching the limit of current technology in terms of

energy efficiency. Unless we built mobile suits bigger than what they

are now, the power output of present generator won't improve much. In

fact,it's already closed to what we can get. That's why we are

developing this new power generator. It's called EMTOR (Enhanced

Minovski particle shielding Thermonuclear Reactor) and theoretically

yields 130 to 200 more power than conventional nuclear fusion

reactor. I won't go in any lengthy detail but keep one thing in mind.

It's still new concept and there still are many problems with this new

reactor as the heating is the main obstacle at the moment. In fact, we

lost first prototype unit due to its heating dispersion system failure.

Fortunately, it was unmanned unit. The prototype you're going to drive

is the third one and has many of new features unfitted in previous two

units."

She then walked to the desk and activated the console. With a key

stroke, a large picture frame on the opposite side of the glass wall

suddenly changed its picture. Upon close inspection Koh found it wasn't

the picture frame, but rather well disguised flat screen which doubled

as the picture frame while not in use.

"This is the footage we took during the second prototype's test-flight.

Please note this one does not have any of third prototype's armour

plates. Also note its wing-like heat dispersion structures at its back.

They're now incorporated inside the body structure of the third

prototype. The third unit's recognition number is MSN-011b3 although

the official recognition number will be MSN-011 S-GUNDAM."

"The MSZ-011 was the last mobile suit from the Project Z which Anehime

Electronics started at the AEUG's request during the Griffs War. Those

early two GUNDAM, the MSZ-006 and the MSZ-010, were delivered to AEUG

followng the MSZ-007SR shortly after but the last one, MSZ-011 was in

58 completion when the war ended. So we used it as the base unit for

this project. The MSZ-011 incorporates the VMsAWrs system first used in

MSZ-010 ZZ GUNDAM but we modified that you can control sub unit with

the psychom instead of needing another pilot. Also in this unit, there

are several differences you should aware of. First, the main ensigns

are inside of the shoulder armour. I know you'll think it's a bit weird

to put the main ensigns at the shoulder but believe me there is a good

reason to do so."

Part Two: Secret File

After his mobile suit had been secured to the maintenance platform, Lt.

Commander McVery Kusko opened the hatch and jumped out from it. Since

the hanger was kept at the low gravity he then slowly dove down to the

main deck. As soon as he touched down he removed his helmet and threw

hard to the floor. "Damm, what's the matter with this thing. Don't you

guys can make this thing work as Fed do ? Today, I was almost killed by

my own Bits !" Then he pointed a short man in his early thirties and

shouted. "You, Mr Monsha. I want what went wrong with the psychom

interface and fixed before my next flight. You got that ?" "Yes, sir.

I'll do my best, sir" "No, it's not enough. Use whatever you need but

just fix it." The short guy saluted and shout. "Yes, sir. I will, sir."

"Good, get on to the work." He then half jumped to the lift-grips and

carried away from the hanger deck.

Lift-grips were special moving handholds that ran on rails built into

both sides of the ship's passageways, and the crew used them to move

through weightless areas.

"Lt. Commander McVery Kusko reporting, sir." McVery saluted as he

entered the operation briefing room. There already was four people at

the table at the middle of the room. At the top of the table, Captain

Hannibal was reading something from the monitor in front of him. At his

right, Dr Flanagan and his assistance and at his left, a Commander Kara

McPherson were seating and talking with Dr Flanagan.

"Oh, Lt. Commander Kusko. I'm sure you're as much furustrated at this

malfunction as we do. As you all know, PMX-005 THE-O mkII is our second

prototype unit and we can't afford to another one. If we can't make it

to work then this whole project will be scrapped." At the captain's

comment, Dr Flanagan opened his mouth.

"Err.. Captain. I assure you this is only minor glitch and won't be a

serious problem. Also let me remind you, PMX-003 in which our prototype

is based on required a considerably higher New Type ability from its

pilot than any other New Type mobile suits. As you already know, that

was why it took us more than four years to modify the psychom interface

to make less demanding on its pilot. I'm sure this PMX-005 will be the

most powerful mobile suit ever built from either Zeon or Feds."

At this point, Commander Kara McPherson interrupted the doctor. "Hey,

doctor. I tested it myself few times before, and boy it was a helluva

experience I don't wish to go through again. The input from that sucker

was overwhelming and needed too much concentration to do anything

else." "But, commander..." At this point, Captain Hannibal spoke again.

"Gentlemen, we can't waist our time on the argument. We got our handful

of things to do, if we want to save this project."

Anavel watched a small screen in his cockpit's 360 degree screen wall,

as Lt.J.G. Marindorf launched MARASAI fifty meters behind his CHAIKA as

ordered. First he detoured around the ship and positioned himself with

the sun to his rear. He then fired the main booster and approached the

north end of Grenada city. There was no response from the city. Two

monitors on the left and right sides of cockpit's 360 degree screen

wall displayed the city's periphery and revealed its relative scale.

The city glared bright in the sun, and the vacuum of space skewed his

perspective. Squinting, he could make out the details of the looming

walls, but soon cockpit displayed nothing but wall all around his

linear seat, making it even harder to keep a sense of relative

distance. He called up the range finder monitor.

Eventually he was so close to the city wall that even the range finder

was of little use. He had to call up the main orthoscopic monitor

wether he wanted or not. Just when it looked like he might smash into

the wall, the details of a giant hatch used for entry and exit became

clear as the on board computer enhanced it, as did what looked like

human graffiti. He could see Toilet to the right, I wanna do it with

Hanes, and worse.

He snorted, "Uh oh..." But he was not responding to the graffiti. He

had spotted the cargo hatch in the city's outer module and it was open.

It might be a trap.

"It's a gamble," he muttered. "The moment I touch the wall, an alarm

might go off. But what can a few Federation clowns do right away

against two mobile suits ?"

Anavel maneuvered his mobile suit to touch the wall. Nothing happened.

With Marindorf following, he entered through the first door on the

cargo hatch and tried the inner lock hatch. Incredibly, the manual door

was open.

'This proves Neo-Zeon doesn't have a monopoly on idiots,' he thought.

One by one, he opened the four layers of shuttered doors on the inner

hatch. The last one was welded shut, but the laser burner built into

the CHAIKA's manipulator took care of that. And then he and Marindorf

emerged onto a deck that overlooked the inside of the city. After

secured their mobile suits, they opened the cockpit hatch and jumped

down to the floor. Their normal suit had a built in small vernier

booster for maneuvering in the low gravity or vacuum so they easily flew

into the city.


End file.
